Transworld acquires story of six surrenders that ended Second World War by James Holland and Al Murray

Transworld, part of Penguin Random House, has acquired the story of the six surrenders that ended the Second World War by James Holland and Al Murray. Bill Scott-Kerr, publisher at Transworld, bought British Commonwealth rights to Victory ’45: The End of the War in Six Surrenders by James Holland and Al Murray from Patrick Walsh at PEW and Mary-Grace Brunker at Avalon.

Victory ’45 will be published by Bantam in late April to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and is the first book jointly authored by Holland and Murray, who host the Goalhanger podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk. Victory ’45 will be published in the US by Grove Atlantic in July 2025.

The book is comprises 12 chapters which are based around each of the six surrenders and the victory celebrations that followed. The publisher said the book is "rich in character and human drama with revealing stories and perspectives behind the end of the war not yet told before".

The book also considers what took place during the negotiations of those surrenders and the terms that were agreed and "shows how they determined the directions the participating countries would take in the years that followed and ultimately the shape of our current world".

Murray said: "Looking at the end of the war, and seeing how the different surrenders played out, when the stakes were so high, has been fascinating. I have discovered that personality is at the core of these intimate stories from the global stage, and I hope that that has come across."

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